Paediatric treadmill injuries:  an increasing problem

Kim, Lawrence H; Maze, Deborah A; Adams, Susan; Guitonich, Sarah; Connolly, Siobhan; Darton, Anne; Holland, Andrew J A

doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2009.tb02918.x

Topics

To the Editor: A previous report from our institutions identified a steady increase in the prevalence of paediatric treadmill friction burn injuries, from three in 2001 to 17 in 2006.1 We sought to determine whether there was any change in this trend during the past 2 years.

1 Burns Unit, Children’s Hospital at Westmead, University of Sydney, NSW.
2 Department of Paediatric Surgery, Sydney Children’s Hospital, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW.
3 NSW Severe Burn Injury Service, Greater Metropolitan Clinical Taskforce, Sydney, NSW.

Correspondence: andrewh3@chw.edu.au

Acknowledgements:

We thank Dr April Wong and Dr Erik La Hei for initial identification of paediatric treadmill injuries as a public health issue.

1. Wong A, Maze D, La Hei E, et al. Pediatric treadmill injuries: a public health issue. J Pediatr Surg 2007; 42: 2086-2089.
2. Jeremijenko L, Mott J, Wallis B, et al. Paediatric treadmill friction injuries. J Paediatr Child Health 2009; 45: 310-312.
3. New South Wales Government, Department of Commerce, Office of Fair Trading. Treadmills and kids don’t mix! Sydney: NSW Office of Fair Trading, 2009. http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/Consumers/Product_and_service_safety/General_products/Treadmills.html (accessed Aug 2009).
4. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Domestic treadmills, safety alert. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, 2008. http://www.accc.gov.au/content/item.phtml?itemId=848069&nodeId=ccfa7c9328246bc4cc37cdc70 aa84c81&fn=Domestic%20treadmills (accessed Aug 2009).
5. Han T, Han K, Kim J, et al. Pediatric hand injury induced by treadmill. Burns 2005; 31: 906-909.

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